Gender violence and the spirit of the feminine: Two accounts of the Yazidi tragedy

Abstract

Abstract This article examines two contrasting accounts of the Yazidi tragedy and IS enslavement of Yazidi women. Through victim testimonies it brings to light how the violence and rape perpetrated against Yazidi women in IS held territory morphed from an IS-sanctioned war crime into market-driven rape and enslavement by individuals, and how the gender violence was intensified in this privatization process. By juxtaposing oral history accounts against a fictional retelling of the tragedy the article investigates different ways of documenting the traumatic experiences of Yazidi women.